The NCAA Tourney pain won't go away...

It's frustrating, but one basketball game is what made you drink again? Really?

We did not play like a final four team. Here's hoping Ohio knocks off those cocky bastards from the ACC.

Lol

you had a drink for the first time in over 16 years because of a game? wtf

Also, we have a hockey team seeded #1, a pro hockey team about to start a Stanley Cup journey for 492nd straight season, and a damn good Tiger baseball team. Watch one of them now.

it's single elim basketball. upsets happen. look forward to the hockey tourney, baseball starting and enjoy the June weather we've had the last week of WINTER.

It is a little depressing seeing every other big ten team win, but whatever.

more Michigan sporting event disasters in the past 16 years that should have pushed you to drink. It hurts but let it go. We had a great season in BBall, 67 teams lose in the tourney and our number just came up sooner than expected.

If Purdue beats Kansas too.

I was rooting for Michigan, but as an Ohio (nto) grad I'm now rooting for the bobcats. Plus I hate UNC.

You could say that about the bunnies and bounces going our way in literally every loss of less than about 10 points for any team ever.  If we played better, we would have won.  I'm over it.  March-January is football season!

No. It's not as if M got screwed or lost in some fluky way. Ohio outplayed them. M was never a legitimate Final Four contender. They overachieved all season. But teams started figuring them out toward the end. Next year will be better.

I feel like Ohio may have been underrated. They look like a real solid team, and DJ Cooper is just flat-out amazing. 

we had a great regular season but to me ohio exposed the problem we've had with most of john beilein's squads and that would be dribble penetration.. how many times did ohio's perimeter defense halt our offensive flow and we had to hoist up a shot with less then 8 sec left on the shot clock? (although they missed like 10 lay ups on top of that)

...next season should showcase a more athletic michigan team so well see how we handle ball pressure

Nope, we ftat out got beat the entire game.

I would have felt worse if Ohio had lost to USF. Now I want to see Ohio do something special and at least the pain of the loss will have some meaning.

As much as this sucks, don't forget that we'll still raise a banner for the Big Ten championship - our first since 1986.  

A weird thing about this program - we never seem to combine Big Ten championships and strong tourney runs, at least not since they opened up the field to non-conference champions.  Our 1977 team was ranked #1 in the country at the end of the regular season and then got upset by Marquette.  The '85 and '86 teams both lost in the second round.  This year, well, we know.   Meanwhile, the '76, '89, '92 and '93 teams all failed to win the league title before reaching the national-title game.

I want ALL the Big Ten teams to continue winning. That will make our regular season look that much better.

The question I honestly had after that game was this - how did the Bobcats only finish third in the MAC? 

As for Michigan specifically, we had a great season (23-8 in the regular season, after all, and we get to hang a banner) despite the sting of the first-round exit in the tournament (and it did sting - I admit to starting St. Patrick's festivities on Friday night). I've tried to look at the long-term - the program is definitely headed in the right direction between the facility upgrades and the talent coming in and having the right personnel in charge of it. RIght now, my best hope is for a better, deeper run next year. 

What could have been? To quote "The Tempest", "What is past is prologue."  What about what could be if the improvement continues? 

I feel the same way, hopefully the hockey tournament lifts my spirits. Levenberry and Isaac commit would help too. As well as 2 week vacation in Hawaii. And some In n Out.

But they are not a better team which makes it even harder to swallow. Ohio has not been a good shooting team this season and really shot the ball better than would be expected. Not sure about shooting % but just watching the South Florida game it seemed like they came back to Earth shooting wise. The missed bunnies bother me but my biggest frustration was the lack of adjustment defensively, just seemed Ohio was shredding the man to man and 2-3 zone and I know the 1-3-1 zone can really slow a team down but was never shown.

The truth is, the team had been out of sync for several weeks.   Since beating OSU on Feb 10, they struggled against Northwestern (winning in OT), got blized by Purdue, losing by 14 at home, nearly lost to Minnesota in the BTT if not for the shot by Smot, and then got pantsed by OSU in the 2nd round.

This team peaked too early.  They unfortunately played their worse ball of the year in March, and that kills you in college basketball. 

Plus, you have to give Ohio credit for hitting a TON of tough shots. Yeah, we missed layups, and I thought the refs swallowed their whistles on a few critical plays where a Michigan player was hit pretty hard, but D.J. Cooper and Ivo Baltic (at least in the first half) were the two best players on the floor.  The team with the two best players on the floor usually wins.

They aren't a 1 or 2 man team either.  Offutt went off in the game tonight, scoring 21 points on 7-9 shooting including 4-4 from 3.  They've got guys who can play, and we didn't make enough plays to deserve to win.  It sucks to say that, but it's true.

I'd rather lose like that then to lose some game where we dominated for 35 minutes and then the other team hit 5 3's in the last 5 minutes to pull the game out. Ohio earned the win. 

Maybe I will feel better next week, but the tournament just seems blah at the moment.

The feeling I have is bittersweet. We had a great season but we did not end so well. I think the pain will go away after the team makes a long run into the tourney next year.

feel better, think of it this way - by the end of the season, the kids had dead legs.  It's not surprising, considering we were really only 6 deep (Vogrich and McLimans rarely played or Affected the outcome) and were lead by a true frosh who had never played that many games before.

This team was really laboring down the stretch and was unlikely to go much further.  So stop worrying about what if

I'm not rooting against the Bobcats of Ohio because I will feel better about losing to a team that goes pretty far in the tournament.